Thank you for visiting the newsletter archive section of our web site. Bison Tales is a e-newsletter sent a maximum of one time per month. We share news of closed deals and investor/lender sentiment. Since 1994 Bison has been a resource to real estate investors, developers and turnaround artists. For more information on our track record please visit our web site. For our continually updated thoughts and views on the direction of the commercial real estate visit our blog.

As we celebrate the 143rd anniversary of the birth of celebrated writer H.G. Wells, we discuss one of his most famous works, The Time Machine. If only the issues facing the commercial real estate industry could be solved by a Time Machine and we could travel back to the boom times of 2005-2006. Would we make the same decisions to buy and finance properties with massive debt loads? with teaser interest rates? with short term maturities? with interest funded by capitalized interest reserves not operations? with loans based on future rent growth? with loans based on the liquidation of the property as condos not the cash flow that could be generated as apartments? Chances are the answer is NO! Since we don't have a time machine, where do we go from here?

The key to understanding the parallels between Darwin and the crisis facing the commercial real estate industry is not in the "survival of the fittest" or "King of the Mountain" sense, but in understanding Darwin's concept of adaptation. Adaptation is defined as "a combination of successive, small, random changes in traits, and natural selection of the variants best-suited for their environment."

Death, Dying and Commercial Real Estate... The last few months have been devastating to the commercial financing industry. To my liberal arts college educated brain the catastrophic shift in the global capital markets and how they impact us can be better understood through the ground breaking work of Swiss-born psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, M.D. (pictured) and her work on death and dying. I believe that her "Five Stages of Grief" from her 1969 book "On Death and Dying" can be applied to the current recession.

Welcome to the Nietzsche Market of 2009... This week I attended the ICSC Idea Exchange in Tampa, FL. The recurring theme I kept hearing over and over from Retailers, Developers, Investors, Brokers & Bankers is SURVIVAL. This got me thinking about German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

A year ago... what was more unlikely? ...the Rays making it to the ALCS and having a shot at going to the World Series or the fall from grace of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, IndyMac, AIG, Countrywide, WaMu & Wachovia?

Newton's Third Law in Action! When I was preparing this month's newsletter... my mind wandered to thoughts of Isaac Newton. His third law of motion states: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

David (Repka) vs. Goliath... Our lead story this month is about how we saved a deal at the 11th hour by bringing in a small, nimble, creative lender to replace the household name "Goliath" (brought in by someone else) that stumbled on the way to the altar.